Friday, January 31, 2014

The finished art that the girls and I painted. I plan on buying some cool lanterns to hang on either side of them so this wall is still a WIP.

Jake and I just hanging out.

A warm kitty, a warm mug of hot cocoa and knitting. A trifecta of happiness!

One of Izzie's lego houses. It has a arch way entrance, a kitchen, and office and a bedroom.

Maddie's house. I especially love the double desks there in the middle and the flowers in the kitchen. They have both really gotten into legos. They love the kits and just building on their own. Legos everywhere!

Izzie

Maddie and Izzie reading library books.

Izzie sorting her math rods.

Maddie

Storytime, Izzie, Maddie.

Izzie and Maddie. (Izzie is slightly shorter than Maddie, but not this much, it's they way they are standing.)

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

End of January and the weather was so bright and warm. Sure we had on our hoodies and gloves, but really it felt great in the sun. We decided to dust off our zoo membership and head to the zoo. Izzie was over her cough, or so I thought....

Bald Eagles.

Izzie seeing where her "wing" span matches up with an eagles.

Maddie.

Our favorite exhibit. The sea lions. They always come right up to the glass to say hello.

An awesome part of the zoo on a weekday in January is that there was hardly anyone there!

And then they put on a show.

We only got to see about 1/3 of the zoo and Izzie's cough came back in force and we had to leave. We still had a lot of fun enjoying the day while we could!

A few days later we went to storytime at the Battleground Library. Here's Maddie and Izzie wearing the handmade dresses that Grandma got them for their birthday.

One of our "Number of the Day" exercises. They like me to take a picture to show Daddy when he gets home. They are so proud of their work. We pick a random number, usually under 100, but not always. Then we spell it, say whether it is odd or even. Then we Add 10, Subtract 10, Add 1, and Subtract 1. Then I give them a bunch of >, <, or = equations to solve. Then the real fun begins. They get out their cuisenaire rods and make up equations that equal 94. By manipulating the rods, it's easy for them to make groups (like four sets of 20) and then add how many rods don't fit in the group to still equal 94. We take anywhere from 10-20 minutes doing this each day, and most days it's one of their favorite school activities.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Kids at our homeschool group. Fiona brought a pinata since it was her birthday and the kids were lining up to take turns swinging at it. Maddie in the purple dress on the left, Izzie on the right.

Just for fun one morning we made a Dutch Baby or what I called a "Pancake Poof." It was fun to watch rise, you can see Maddie's reflection in the oven door.

Talking about area in math, we glued down construction paper squares to fill in a rectangle and a triangle.

Izzie. First we did the length and the width and then we filled in the area.

We got some really, really dense fog in January. The picture doesn't show it well, but the visibility was very limited. The fog hung around all day too, but at night it was a bit freaky to drive out in. This is on a back road behind my neighborhood. I stopped the car to take the picture, there was no other traffic. Don't worry, I was being safe.

We got a big outdoor toybox for all the sports gear these girls have been accumulating. Balls, gloves, bows and arrows, skateboards, etc! Before taking the box out to recycle the girls spent some time before bedtime drawing. (Maddie, Izzie.)

Izzie and Daddy playing some nintendo or some such game.

Still loving my short hair. At least most days.

I needed some art work behind the girls spot in the dining room. So I bought these big canvases for pretty cheap and put some masking tape down. The girls helped me paint the polygons. We also talked abut visual balance. Izzie told me that this was very boring art, but that she guessed that I must like it.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Back from Mema's house we had one more day at Mom's house before flying back to Washington. Rhonda came over to spend some more time with the girls. She used them to practice face painting, something she's been wanting to learn so she can face paint at her school's carnivals. Both Izzie and Maddie were happy to participate.

Maddie and Izzie picking out their designs and colors.

At first they only let her paint on their arms. They've never had their face painted, for some reason they've just never wanted it done. But after she did both arms, they decided that maybe they did want their faces done afterall! Izzie, Rhonda and Maddie.

I had intended to help mom pack more than I did, but we did get some boxes put together. The girls had the very important task of decorating those boxes. I love their castles and dragons!

Then as we were getting ready for our good bye dinner the girls were in the living room tossing their lovies in the air. If you look closely, you'll see White Teddy hanging out on the ceiling fan. Luckily he was pretty easy to get off. After dinner I spent the evening trying to pack all the clothes and gifts we'd received into the suitcases. The hardest part was keeping all the suitcases to under 50lbs. I'm a master packer, but I'm a little too good sometimes, because you might not be able to lift what I pack. I've learned over the years to think about weight as well as size when packing boxes and suitcases!

Thursday, January 2, 2014

After our visit with Jackie and Tom, we had to say goodbye to John on New Year's Eve. He had to head back to Washington to go back to work, but we still had six more days in Texas! So of course, we had to roadtrip it down to Bryan to visit Mema, Pepaw and some of my cousins. We only got to stay a couple of days so we didn't get to see everyone. Mom came with us and we had a pretty good roadtrip.

Izzie and Maddie with my (second) cousin, Lisa's kids Anthony and Kylee. So I guess that makes them 3rd cousins? Lisa is six months younger than I am, so we always have thought of ourselves as just "cousins."

Mom took a blurry photo of me and my cuz and our kids.

Izzie, Daylynn, Darian and Maddie. Our family is so lucky to have two sets of ID girl twins! Maddie and Izzie are Mema and Pepaw's Great Grandchildren and Darian and Daylynn are their last set of Grandchildren (my first cousins.)

Mema showing something to Daylynn and Maddie. Pepaw over there in his chair.

Mema saves old plastic jars and tins and random bits and the kids think that they are the best toys EVER.

I took a photo of Maddie so she wanted to take one of me...

I hadn't exactly done my hair... we were all just sitting around visiting.

And then she took one of Mema.

Izzie with the littles.

Maddie on the other end.

Now this was awesome. My Unka D, Mom, Pepaw and (Great) Aunt Kathy. Unka D and Mom are siblings and Pepaw and Aunt Kathy are siblings. Mema pulled out a tin of old family photos and we had a fun time looking through them.

My sleeping princesses. Maddie and Izzie with one of the quilts that mom made.